3,170 research outputs found
Theoretical He I Emissivities in the Case B Approximation
We calculate the He I case B recombination cascade spectrum using improved
radiative and collisional data. We present new emissivities over a range of
electron temperatures and densities. The differences between our results and
the current standard are large enough to have a significant effect not only on
the interpretation of observed spectra of a wide variety of objects but also on
determinations of the primordial helium abundance.Comment: Accepted to ApJ
The optimal schedule for pulsar timing array observations
In order to maximize the sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays to a stochastic
gravitational wave background, we present computational techniques to optimize
observing schedules. The techniques are applicable to both single and
multi-telescope experiments. The observing schedule is optimized for each
telescope by adjusting the observing time allocated to each pulsar while
keeping the total amount of observing time constant. The optimized schedule
depends on the timing noise characteristics of each individual pulsar as well
as the performance of instrumentation. Several examples are given to illustrate
the effects of different types of noise. A method to select the most suitable
pulsars to be included in a pulsar timing array project is also presented.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted by MNRA
Improving Predictions for Helium Emission Lines
We have combined the detailed He I recombination model of Smits with the
collisional transitions of Sawey & Berrington in order to produce new accurate
helium emissivities that include the effects of collisional excitation from
both the 2 (3)S and 2 (1) S levels. We present a grid of emissivities for a
range of temperature and densities along with analytical fits and error
estimates.
Fits accurate to within 1% are given for the emissivities of the brightest
lines over a restricted range for estimates of primordial helium abundance. We
characterize the analysis uncertainties associated with uncertainties in
temperature, density, fitting functions, and input atomic data. We estimate
that atomic data uncertainties alone may limit abundance estimates to an
accuracy of 1.5%; systematic errors may be greater than this. This analysis
uncertainty must be incorporated when attempting to make high accuracy
estimates of the helium abundance. For example, in recent determinations of the
primordial helium abundance, uncertainties in the input atomic data have been
neglected.Comment: ApJ, accepte
Paradoxical popups: Why are they hard to catch?
Even professional baseball players occasionally find it difficult to
gracefully approach seemingly routine pop-ups. This paper describes a set of
towering pop-ups with trajectories that exhibit cusps and loops near the apex.
For a normal fly ball, the horizontal velocity is continuously decreasing due
to drag caused by air resistance. But for pop-ups, the Magnus force (the force
due to the ball spinning in a moving airflow) is larger than the drag force. In
these cases the horizontal velocity decreases in the beginning, like a normal
fly ball, but after the apex, the Magnus force accelerates the horizontal
motion. We refer to this class of pop-ups as paradoxical because they appear to
misinform the typically robust optical control strategies used by fielders and
lead to systematic vacillation in running paths, especially when a trajectory
terminates near the fielder. In short, some of the dancing around when
infielders pursue pop-ups can be well explained as a combination of bizarre
trajectories and misguidance by the normally reliable optical control strategy,
rather than apparent fielder error. Former major league infielders confirm that
our model agrees with their experiences.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, sumitted to American Journal of Physic
Radiation-Resistant Solar Cells - A Panel Discussion
Radiation resistant silicon cells for solar energy conversio
The Primordial Abundance of He4: An Update
We include new data in an updated analysis of helium in low metallicity
extragalactic HII regions with the goal of deriving the primordial abundance of
He4 (Y_P). We show that the new observations of Izotov et al (ITL) are
consistent with previous data. However they should not be taken in isolation to
determine (Y_P) due to the lack of sufficiently low metallicity points. We use
the extant data in a semi-empirical approach to bounding the size of possible
systematic uncertainties in the determination of (Y_P). Our best estimate for
the primordial abundance of He4 assuming a linear relation between He4 and O/H
is Y_P = 0.230 \pm 0.003 (stat) based on the subset of HII regions with the
lowest metallicity; for our full data set we find Y_P = 0.234 \pm 0.002 (stat).
Both values are entirely consistent with our previous results. We discuss the
implications of these values for standard big bang nucleosynthesis (SBBN),
particularly in the context of recent measurements of deuterium in high
redshift, low metallicity QSO absorption-line systems.Comment: 26 pages, latex, 6 ps figure
Single pulse and profile variability study of PSR J1022+1001
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are known as highly stable celestial clocks.
Nevertheless, recent studies have revealed the unstable nature of their
integrated pulse profiles, which may limit the achievable pulsar timing
precision. In this paper, we present a case study on the pulse profile
variability of PSR J1022+1001. We have detected approximately 14,000 sub-pulses
(components of single pulses) in 35-hr long observations, mostly located at the
trailing component of the integrated profile. Their flux densities and
fractional polarisation suggest that they represent the bright end of the
energy distribution in ordinary emission mode and are not giant pulses. The
occurrence of sub-pulses from the leading and trailing components of the
integrated profile is shown to be correlated. For sub-pulses from the latter, a
preferred pulse width of approximately 0.25 ms has been found. Using
simultaneous observations from the Effelsberg 100-m telescope and the
Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, we have found that the integrated profile
varies on a timescale of a few tens of minutes. We show that improper
polarisation calibration and diffractive scintillation cannot be the sole
reason for the observed instability. In addition, we demonstrate that timing
residuals generated from averages of the detected sub-pulses are dominated by
phase jitter, and place an upper limit of ~700 ns for jitter noise based on
continuous 1-min integrations.Comment: 13 pages, 20 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA
Supra-oscillatory critical temperature dependence of Nb-Ho bilayers
We investigate the critical temperature Tc of a thin s-wave superconductor
(Nb) proximity coupled to a helical rare earth ferromagnet (Ho). As a function
of the Ho layer thickness, we observe multiple oscillations of Tc superimposed
on a slow decay, that we attribute to the influence of the Ho on the Nb
proximity effect. Because of Ho inhomogeneous magnetization, singlet and
triplet pair correlations are present in the bilayers. We take both into
consideration when solving the self consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations,
and we observe a reasonable agreement. We also observe non-trivial transitions
into the superconducting state, the zero resistance state being attained after
two successive transitions which appear to be associated with the magnetic
structure of Ho.Comment: Main article: 5 pages, 4 figures; Supplementary materials: 4 pages, 5
figure
Model-based asymptotically optimal dispersion measure correction for pulsar timing
In order to reach the sensitivity required to detect gravitational waves,
pulsar timing array experiments need to mitigate as much noise as possible in
timing data. A dominant amount of noise is likely due to variations in the
dispersion measure. To correct for such variations, we develop a statistical
method inspired by the maximum likelihood estimator and optimal filtering. Our
method consists of two major steps. First, the spectral index and amplitude of
dispersion measure variations are measured via a time-domain spectral analysis.
Second, the linear optimal filter is constructed based on the model parameters
found in the first step, and is used to extract the dispersion measure
variation waveforms. Compared to current existing methods, this method has
better time resolution for the study of short timescale dispersion variations,
and generally produces smaller errors in waveform estimations. This method can
process irregularly sampled data without any interpolation because of its
time-domain nature. Furthermore, it offers the possibility to interpolate or
extrapolate the waveform estimation to regions where no data is available.
Examples using simulated data sets are included for demonstration.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, submitted 15th Sept. 2013, accepted 2nd April
2014 by MNRAS. MNRAS, 201
The beamformer and correlator for the Large European Array for Pulsars
The Large European Array for Pulsars combines Europe's largest radio
telescopes to form a tied-array telescope that provides high signal-to-noise
observations of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) with the objective to increase the
sensitivity of detecting low-frequency gravitational waves. As part of this
endeavor we have developed a software correlator and beamformer which enables
the formation of a tied-array beam from the raw voltages from each of
telescopes. We explain the concepts and techniques involved in the process of
adding the raw voltages coherently. We further present the software processing
pipeline that is specifically designed to deal with data from widely spaced,
inhomogeneous radio telescopes and describe the steps involved in preparing,
correlating and creating the tied-array beam. This includes polarization
calibration, bandpass correction, frequency dependent phase correction,
interference mitigation and pulsar gating. A link is provided where the
software can be obtained.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Computin
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